NORTHRIDGE : CSUN Volunteers to Tutor Youngsters

A student volunteer program started at Cal State Northridge this year will step into the void left after the university axed a popular tutoring program due to budget cuts.

Starting in the fall, the student union will recruit about 20 CSUN students to tutor disadvantaged elementary, junior high and high school students in a North Hills youth center and the Rancho San Antonio youth home in Chatsworth, said Cynthia Moyer, CSUN student union services manager.

Before the program was cut two years ago, CSUN student tutors used to work with an education professor to earn credit for the service. Now, in an unusual step, the university has agreed to offer a college credit in secondary education for students who volunteer to tutor, Moyer said.

The program arose from the activities of Students Organized for Service, a group sponsored by the student union to recruit students to work with homeless children, AIDS patients and other people in need. Tutoring wasn’t on the agenda at first, but became a priority, Moyer said.

“Since we started the volunteer program, one of the issues that kept coming back to us from the community is that there is a great need for tutors,” she said.

That need has become more acute in recent years due to new multitrack schedules in the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has made it more difficult to match up high school-aged tutors with younger students because their vacation schedules differ, said Los Angeles Police Officer Fran Briscoe, who oversees the Police Activities League Supporters Youth Center at 9150 Sepulveda Blvd., North Hills.

“It seems like this will work out very, very well,” Briscoe said. “We have about 15 or 20 kids here each day, of which about eight really need some tutoring. They’re having some trouble.”